I never used Tailbite so I don't know the answer to this: why doesn't TB work anymore? I thought it was just PureBasic code like COMate?

Tailbite allowed us to create libraries so you don't have to code functions that you have already troubleshoot. You can use it like any function in PB with a proper .res file in Residents. However some issues with the strings.

For developers who have created routines prior to developing projects for others where you need to surrender source code, this can help you isolate what you created and want private AND what you want to share.

1) I would vote for SSL/TLS support in network library especially so I could create network servers that supported SSL. I have a lot of demand for SSL since I work with payment gateways. This has got to be my biggest need above all others.

2) Arm support would be very helpful as I also do a lot of work in the embedded world and Tibbo is coming out with a Linux based system for ARM processors and it would be very nice to use PB in that environment.

If I were to place a PB 6.x wish on top of the wishlist that would be to make PureBasic more version-control friendly.

In the last year I've seen many new PB project spawn on platforms like GitHub, which makes sense because code collaboration is a great motivating factor in any language trend growth, as well as a personal motivation to invest energy in projects (together is faster, nicer, and better).

Whoever has tried to work with Git and PB projects will surely have stumbled over many issues:

PB source files with settings at the end of the source file create problems for different contributors, and quite often even if you disable that option in your IDE some other contributor might forget it on and cause Git to see files changes which are spurious.

PB Proejct files change at each end-of-session because they also store history and checksum data — this also causes Git to detect changes which shouldn't be really commit, and most of all every contributor will be changing the project file, so Git will always mark the file as changed, which is a great hassle that prevents switching branches without Git complaining.

Other issues might come up when different contributors use PB on different OSs.

So I really hope that the next Major release of PureBasic will take into consideration the wider picture and general trend of the developers community; and lift all the current settings that make working with VCS tools harder. Hopefully, the current PB project files will change, and allow to choose if the file should contain personal data and project history or not, or maybe the IDE could handle two separate project files: one without personal info, in the project folder, and another one with more details in some temporary folder elsewhere --- the former being a more "universal" project file that can be shared with anyone, works with PB on any OS, and doesn't change unless substantial settings are altered.

Also, I'd like to see project files use JSON instead of XML, or even better: YAML — human friendly please!

(It was really cool when PB introduced the JSON lib, so I might also add the wish that PB 6 will bring a YAML lib too!)

Beside that, I'd love to see an updated SDK, with neat documentation (current docs still mention Amiga!) and with a permissive license --- right now, the license terms of the C include files are that by using them you are granting Fantaise Software all rights to use your code:

Code:

/* === Copyright Notice === * * * PureBasic source code file * * * This file is part of the PureBasic Software package. It may not * be distributed or published in source code or binary form without * the expressed permission by Fantaisie Software. * * By contributing modifications or additions to this file, you grant * Fantaisie Software the rights to use, modify and distribute your * work in the PureBasic package. * * * Copyright (C) 2000-2010 Fantaisie Software - all rights reserved * */

If there is one thing that makes a language powerful that is the wealth of libraries it offers — especially open source libraries.

The license terms of the SDK include files don't even allow you to publish on GitHub a PB library you create, because they'd conflict with the legal terms of most open source hosting services. There are lots of PB users who just love to share their code freely, but these include files can't be added to the project. Why?

If these SDK files would have been GPL licensed, at least one could publish them with his GPL project.

Really, why? Why make it hard for those who wish to make open source contributions?You'll find lot's of open source PB code, but very few purelibs written in C.

Collaborative tools make developement happen faster (and better). We've all seen the success of GitHub and similar services.

If the SDK was better documented, more up to date, and with permissive license, probably people would be more motivate to contribute lots of useful libraries.

Should we ask for specific features to be implemented, or should we ask for more freedom in the direction of collaborative open source?The former is the hands of few developers, the latter goes in a direction were potential contributors are unlimited.

For all the love I have for PureBasic, I often feel that issues like those mentioned above are obstacles that prevent it from unleashing most of its power.